Sister Missionary Meeting, Zone Training Meetings, Discovering Parks

We love p-days when we have a little bit of extra time to explore different parts of the area around us. One day we discovered the Coastal Rail Trail which runs alongside the train tracks.

Another day we came upon this Lombard Street wanna be. For those who have never been to San Francisco, Lombard Street is the most crooked street in the world. It is a beautifully landscaped, steep one-block road with eight hairpin turns.

These people are the leaders of the Young Church Service missionaries in the Carlsbad and San Diego Missions. They came to introduce themselves and tell us about their missionaries and how we might be able to work together.

One day we attended the Olivenhain district meeting with this group of missionaries.

These are all the sister missionaries in our mission. We had a training meeting with them, fed them lunch, and then Sister Christensen (a senior missionary in our office) gave all the sisters a crocheted gift of a trivet and wash cloth she had made for each one of them.

For some reason, I really love to take pictures of the tables, chairs and learning materials in the room after the missionaries have gone to lunch. This is the setting of our MLC with all the zone leaders, district leaders, sister training leaders and assistants.

We have such fabulous leaders in our mission. We feel very blessed.

We do our best to have a date night each week as we have been directed and as we have done our whole married life. This particular night we tried out Hunter Steakhouse. We finished eating just as the sun was setting and enjoyed this beautiful scene right behind the restaurant.

Another week we had a date night at P.F. Chang's with one of the bishops and his wife from the Escondido Stake.

They were kind enough to meet us at a restaurant close to the church building we wanted to be at later that evening when four people in the Farsi group of the Del Mar stake were being baptized.

We especially enjoy attending the baptisms where Glen has done the baptismal interviews. It is nice to learn of their conversion stories and then be there for their actual baptism day. Such a glorious event. Each and every time.

We always love it when we get some kind of love note from one of the grandchildren. This "lv not" is from Eli.

 I especially love how he signed his name twice--one for Glen and one for me.

We got a love note from Sarah as well. It was tucked in with a package of new family photos.

The note says "Hey Mom and Dad! Thought I'd give you a few extra months to enjoy our current family picture since it will be out of date mid April. Love ya! The Excell Family."

Well, that was a cute way of announcing baby #4. (I won't say baby BOY #4 because Sarah might be reading this.)

I really enjoyed how the zone leaders of the Escondido zone had their zone training meeting all set up and decorated in the theme of the season. This was my table. Glen was sad to miss it, but he was conducting missionary interviews of another zone's missionaries while I attended the meeting. He was working hard to get the interview cycle completed before Rebecca's family came to visit.

Notice the spiders hanging down from the ceiling.

Well look at this! MP stopped by to say hello to the missionaries and stepped in for a group photo.

We love our senior missionaries. They work HARD!! This is our get-to-know-you dinner with the Coverstons (sitting across from us) who are our new military relations senior missionaries.

I went to another zone training meeting in Temecula while MP was interviewing missionaries from other zones. They got into the Halloween spirit as well, complete with themed treats.

Notice one of the zone leaders wore an orange tie to stay with the theme. They had some great trainings. I really love zone training meeting week when we sit in the back and watch the leaders teaching their peers. It is very spiritual. They are amazing young people.

After each zone training meeting, we debrief with the zone leaders and sister training leaders. These are the leaders from the Fallbrook zone I attended while MP interviewed missionaries from a different zone.

In anticipation of the grandchildren's visit, Glen is indulging in the treat he bought "for them"...?

On one of our p-days, we were out scouting around for parks nearby where the children could play. This one is Hosp Grove Park which has a small playground and then winding hiking trails all around and through the many Eucalyptus trees. Once up on the highest part you can look out over the Buena Vista Lagoon.

We checked out this park which we can see from the freeway close to our exit.

There are lots of trees in the park. Lots of different kinds of trees. Lots of BIG trees. Here I am trying to be a tree hugger (with ants crawling all up and down the tree where I was hugging).

From the freeway I could see a fence all around one of the trees in the park. I had wondered what is so special about the tree.  

By the way, the Golden family did not even go to either one of these parks when they were here.

I guess it's nice to know these are a couple of good reasons for them to come back again for another visit.